Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a contactless charging system, a charging station, and a method of controlling the contactless charging system.
Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, a system has been proposed in which electric power is transferred from a power transmission device provided in a charging station to a power reception device mounted on a vehicle in a contactless manner to charge the vehicle (hereinafter also referred to as a “contactless charging system”).
At the time when electric power is transferred in a contactless manner, it is believed that various types of information are exchanged through communication between the charging station and the vehicle to carry out alignment between the power reception device provided in the vehicle and the power transmission device provided in the charging station, to control charging power, and so on (see Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2013-135572, for example).
In the contactless charging system, the charging station may be configured to include a plurality of power transmission devices. With such a configuration, the same number of vehicles as the power transmission devices are charged simultaneously by the charging station.
During alignment between the vehicle and the power transmission device, the vehicle moves toward (approaches) one of the power transmission devices capable of charging the vehicle (available power transmission device). When there are two or more vehicles trying to be charged in the charging station, the two or more vehicles may move toward one power transmission device, resulting in competition between them. In that case, after the first vehicle completes alignment with the power transmission device and is stopped (parked) at the power transmission device, another vehicle may enter space provided with the power transmission device.
When a charging station includes a plurality of power transmission devices, it cannot be understood how many vehicles there are and which one of the power transmission devices they are moving to. It is thus not easy to address the problem described above.